Nutmeg Junction Episode 2. 36 (season 2 episode 36) features three stories on our trolley ride of imagination. First is Harriet Holmes: the Long Weekend. Then we return to the world of Malcolm MacDuff Theater Detective in Ghost Light. Finally DH Robbins is the guest host for Thank Your Lucky Stars in The Miracle Mind! Please enjoy!
LISTEN HERE:
Harriet Holmes and the Long Weekend featured Olivia Wadsworth, Kayla Soule, Kristin MoreAYsee, Jandi Hanna, DH Robbins, John Fabiani. With Music by Bob Eccelston
Malcolm MacDuff: The Ghost Light featured Jeff Savage, Dan Willey, Rich Cyr, AJ Lin, Devon Richtmeyer, Robert C. Fullerton, and David Robinson with music by Robert C. Fullerton.
Thank Your Lucky Stars featured DH Robbins and David Robinson with Tiffy McKay and Lana Peck
We hope you enjoyed your visit to Nutmeg Junction and may all your journeys bring you back to a happy home.
Private Eye Harriet Holmes is in deep in her investigation of the charismatic Congressman Jack Vindle. Discovering just how Vindle is holding illicit communications outside the public eye, Holmes has to take steps to discover the truth but can she do it in time? And what steps will Vindle take as he learns more about Holmes? Is that Vindle outside her door? Tune in to the thrilling conclusion of Harriet Holmes: Sleep of Angels.
Starring Olivia Wadsworth as Harriet Holmes
and Nick Bourne as Congressman Jack Vindle
with Jandi Hanna, Robert C. Fullerton and J. Timothy Quirk.
Written by J. Timothy Quirk
LISTEN HERE:
SHOW NOTES:
This 3 part Harriet Holmes story was a departure from our usual parody/comedy style and we enjoyed the challenge of presenting a more adult concept. We determined hereafter that when we do more adult themed/serious stories that we will do so under the Nutmeg Junction Underground banner so there is no confusion.
Robert C. Fullerton composed and performed the new Harriet Holmes theme which is very exciting.
We didn’t take any new photos the week we recorded this, I believe a lot of us were not 100% as it relates to health.
In conclusion we will do more serious stories in the future, just under the new Underground banner and we hope you enjoyed the tone of this three episode arc!
Credits
Season 2 Episode 8: Harriet Holmes: Sleep of Angels 3-the Conclusion
was written, created and produced by J. Timothy Quirk (C) 2019
Starring
Olivia Wadsworth as Harriet Holmes
Nick Bourne as Congressman Jack Vindle
with
Jandi Hanna as Muffy Danvers
Robert C. Fullerton as Pierce
Dan Willey as Muscle
J. Timothy Quirk as Otis
Nutmeg Junction Theme composed, performed by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2018 all rights reserved.
The Harriet Holmes Theme composed, performed by Robert C. Fullerton (c) 2019 all rights reserved.
Private Eye Harriet Holmes continues to investigate the charismatic Congressman Jack Vindle. Her client, wealthy socialite Muffy Danvers, believes Vindle is having communications outside of the public schedule and she wants to know what they are. Holmes attempts to unlock the mystery that includes discovering the motives of her client.
Starring Olivia Wadsworth as Harriet Holmes with Nick Bourne as Congressman Jack VIndle. Also starring Jandi Hanna, Robert C. Fullerton, Dan Willey and J. Timothy Quirk.
LISTEN HERE:
SHOW NOTES
This series features the original music by Robert C. Fullerton who composed and performed the Harriet Holmes theme. Musician Robert C Fullerton also acts as Mr. Pierce in our story.
This story is a departure from the usual parody story we often share, it is a darker story and has elements of the Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammet school of detective/noir thrillers. With Nutmeg Junction, we celebrate the world of Old Time Radio (audio theater) and there are a plethora of genres that entertained the listening audience. We’ve focused on the comedic aspects of the medium but we can do stories of all varieties and we decided to flex our dramatic muscles with this three part story.
The story was intended to be shared in four or five segments but when our lead actor Nick Bourne had an opportunity to head to the Big Apple, we decided to put the entire story in three episodes. This is why this particular story is only 20 minutes (and we added “Thoughts before Brunch” as a bonus to the episode, but the final chapter (chapter 3) will be the full 30 minutes.
Nick Bourne as Congressman Jack Vindle and Olivia Wadsworth as Harriet Holmes
LISTEN HERE
Private Eye Harriet Holmes takes a case to document the comings and goings of a popular Congressman for a mysterious client. Following a car from the Congressman’s home, Holmes and her assistant Otis discover there may be more to the case than meets the eye in this noir style thriller.
Olivia Wadsworth as Harriet Holmes with Hunter Reese as Otis
In this episode we present the first part of a ‘noir” inspired narrative “Harriet Holmes and the Sleep of Angels. This story is a departure from our usual lighthearted fare.
The story was intended to be a three chapter arc but we found that one of the key actors in the story, Nick Bourne who portrays Congressman Jack Vindle, will be pursuing theater in the city that never sleeps (and we’re rooting for him!) so we will share the part two of the story next week.
Starring
Olivia Wadsworth as Harriet Holmes
NIck Bourne as Congressman Jack Vindle
Hunter Reese as Otis
with Jandi Hanna, Dan Willey and J. Timothy Quirk
Our Grey Whisper story began a few weeks ago in “Anthracite in Blue” and continued the following week in “Anthracite in Two”. This week we present the conclusion to the the story with “Anthracite Adieu”.
After that we present a sneak peek at special Harriet Holmes story entitled “Sleep of Angels”.
Anthracite Adieu features
Jandi Hanna as Madeline Forthright/The Grey Whisper
Rich Cyr as Rusty
with
Kurt Boucher as Dalton Pressege
Nick Bourne as the Announcer
Robert C. Fullerton as Number Nine
Melissa Gabehart as Ms. Harcourt
Lana Peck as Store Owner
Olivia Wadsworth as Jean Craftwell/Number Four
and
Dan Willey as Agent (who happens to come from) Orange
Intrepid private eye Harriet Holmes meets an iconic detective duo to conclude her search for the Lost Episode of Nutmeg Junction. She locates the story of Trace Duggins: Crime Illustrator in a send-up to the golden age of radio.
SHOW NOTES
There used to be an old time radio program called Casey: Crime Photographer which was nothing more than a detective show with the protagonist who was a photographer for a newspaper. When creating a parody of that show, Kurt Moffett, who is himself a reporter for a newspaper as well as an integral part of the WAPJ radio station family, was tapped to play the lead.
That being said didn’t want to do a photographer and thought a crime “illustrator” had more appeal especially as the character to wax philosophically about the art choices and bake in to the story line a specific reason why the perpetrator would be caught through art. Since I wasn’t going to use “case-y” and thought Trace would be a great name for an artist.
Occasionally we’ll leave some moments of behind the scenes humor/reactions in the show itself. We do that at the very end of the episode courtesy of Rich Cyr!
The Trace Duggins story line is introduced as part of the Harriet Holmes mythology, or rather trilogy for this is the third and probably final part of the “Search for the Lost Episode” saga. To be sure, we’ll have Harriet Holmes in many more adventures but we’ve done three “lost episodes” shows and as it says in the script, three is a magic number. Olivia Wadsworth is wonderful in the role and her monologues have some of the better one-liners.
I’m excited that the show reintroduces Netta and Nathaniel Chance, our tip of the hat to the Thin Man series, and I absolutely love the way Lana Peck and Kurt Boucher channel the iconic era. These characters were recorded on our very first recording day (ever) of Nutmeg Junction and they deserve some more adventures!
The location of the Harriet Holmes section is in Broughton’s Meadow which was the original name for Florence, Massachusetts area in the Pioneer Valley. Their library is Lilly Library and the iconic and wonderful public park is Look Park. See if you can hear the references to these locations!
Also there are a few shout outs to Leominster Massachusetts! The show is heading to Leominster’s WLPZ on October 20th!
We continue our new way of creating Episode art-with photos taken via Kurt Boucher and myself (not sure who took which photos but it was a collaborative effort on the team). Jandi Hanna located a magnifying glass which we used during the photo shoot and in future episode covers it will probably be seen!
CREDITS
EPISODE 25: HARRIET HOLMES AND THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST EPISODE III WITH TRACE DUGGINS: CRIME ILLUSTRATOR
WAS WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY J. TIMOTHY QUIRK (C)2018
STARRING:
OLIVIA WADSWORTH AS HARRIET HOLMES/MS. SUSPECTON/MRS. GRIMLEY
KURT MOFFETT AS TRACE DUGGINS: CRIME ILLUSTRATOR
LANA PECK AS NETTA CHANCE/NARRATOR
KURT BOUCHER AS NATHANIEL CHANCE/MR. GRIMLEY
MELISSA GABEHART AS STRANGER ON A TRAIN/MAUDE PATTERSON
As it was mentioned in Episode 5, we had worked on three chapters of the Professor A: Adjunct Professor to the Multi-verse saga and of course we had the intention to do more. But I found when I edited the show that it sounded best with the chapters at approximately 15 minutes in length (at least for the first two) so we had an extra chapter recorded but not shared with our audience yet.
Secondly, when Olivia Wadsworth came on board I had pitched to her the idea for HER character to be Harriet Holmes. It’s always been my intention for each actor to have a signature role. Some actors may have more than one but I’d like each actor to have episodes where their character is the star. Anyway at the time I envisioned a London tale of Harriet being an actual sibling to Sherlock but found that the tv show SHERLOCK had already put out a story where there was a sister character for Sherlock and it would have seemed too derivative if I tried that too, no matter how I played it.
But as it turned out I also wanted to do a tough as nails Detective character. I have many uses for that character and certainly hard boiled detectives are so ubiquitous in Old Time Radio I’ll have many detectives on the show voiced by many different actors.
Ok, and here’s the thing. I wrote the detective story, finding the lost episode of Nutmeg Junction with a detective without a name. I wasn’t sure what we would call her.
I wrote the opening soliloquy the night before recording and posted it on facebook. This helped Olivia work on and find the voice for the recording session. I finished the story the following day, which was the day of recording, with the final pass completed 15 minutes before i left for the radio station. It’s a tight script that flows very well and there’s very little (if anything at all) I’d change about it.
I cast Jack Sheedy in the role of Lenny Snitchwell. Jack is a writer, an author and editor of a newspaper (Catholic Transcript), and the idea of an “English Major” is a call back to another show that for many years carried the torch of Old Time Radio. Jandi reprises her role of Nonna Hanna.
While we were at the table read, we discussed the fact that the detective didn’t have a name. I believe it was either Jandi or Olivia who brought up the idea of Harriet Holmes. i can not take credit for that at all. But the name fit perfectly and I asked Olivia if she wanted the detective character to be called that. She did.
So that’s how we have Harriet Holmes as a “modern” private eye, not beholden to any Sherlock but understood on her own terms.
Jack did a remarkable job as “Lenny”. He knew the character instantly and gave the right flourish.
The Professor Episode was a lot of fun. This one felt had a lot of comedy thanks to all of the actors in the cast. Everyone has a good line or two including Josh and Jandi as the two humans: Freddie and Alice (which they performed in a cockney accent).
There is only one slight editing mistake I missed in this portion of the show but I will fix it in future editions of the show.
Listeners can expect MORE of Harriet Holmes (she will undoubtedly return in Search for the lost episode part two, and more of the Professor. I plan to have scripts written and recorded this month.
